When a guest at Marriott’s Courtyard Crystal City/Washington National airport complained about the property’s upgrade policies, the hotel general manager responded – and laid out why he prefers not to make upgrades available to elite members.
The Titanium member was disappointed that the property decided “to try and charge for an Elite upgrade.”
I do expect to be given at least the room I booked, not downgraded to a smaller room and I absolutely do not expect being told there are upgrades available but for a fee.
I had originally booked a 1 king room with a couch, however, I was given one of the few smaller king rooms with no couch, even after being told there were upgrades available for a fee and seeing on the app that not only were they still selling the room I booked but had a few different upgraded rooms for sale at time of checkin.
The hotel’s general manager laid out their philosophy.
They have too many elites to upgradeSo they don’t try to upgrade elitesAnd they work to maximize revenue insteadThis is the most fair approach for everyone
While we very much appreciate your loyalty as an Elite member, we do have a very limited number of premium rooms at our hotel, and have anywhere from 50-100 Elite members arriving daily. In order to make it more equitable, we offer these rooms at a very low upgrade price, so that those who really need or want them have them available for their use.
This is such an odd take,
There are so many elites, they can’t all have upgrades, and it’s somehow not fair to prioritize upgrades based on status and the variety of other factors Marriott provides to hotels?
In order for a Gold or non-status member to have access to an upgraded, they’ll just offer to sell it to everyone for cash instead of unfairly allowing it to go to the most loyal Ambassador or Titanium guest.
Marriott Bonvoy has upgrade criteria. Traditionally ‘equity’ wasn’t one of factors.
Marriott has been working to sell more upgraded rooms for cash with “options for members to be able to purchase a confirmed upgrade before arrival through new digital upsell placements and merchandising across the Marriott Bonvoy app and website.”
Some Marriotts will only provide upgrades for pay, ignoring Bonvoy program benefits, because larger rooms cost more to clean.
Ultimately, though, Marriott does a bad job of setting expectations. They tell Platinum members they’re entitled to suites and other upgraded rooms if available, but Platinum is only the middle tier of status, and the status tiers are inflated relative to inventory… inventory that hotels will offer at a modest incremental upsell rather than allow to be given free.
In some sense that’s a fair approach for a chain to take except that isn’t really the promise or deal that Marriott has made with its members. If they’re going to allow hotels to ignore program benefits, and truthfully that seems to be what they’ve done in their quest to make owners happy and drive net rooms growth, then they should communicate honestly with members around what to expect.